Work Effectively by Making Today’s Priority
This one-page document will make your workday more effective
Zagreb, December 2024
I asked the one and only colleague in my division to have a meeting in my office room.
Yeah, my one and only colleague, since we’re the only two people responsible for the day-to-day work at the Media and Socio-Culture division at the Indonesian Embassy in Zagreb.
Unlike in other countries’ capitals, our diplomatic mission is relatively small compared to Embassies in Den Haag, Washington DC, Singapore, and others. So, one division consists of only one diplomat and one local staff.
The meeting agenda that day was simple: We were evaluating our working system before we proceeded with the new year 2025. I’d like to receive feedback from my colleague. Hopefully, we can work more productively and effectively in the coming year.
So, we discussed:
The way we communicated with each other;
The project progress that we’ve made so far; and
Today’s Priorities
We agreed that we should adjust our work system.
Except, the today’s priorities.
“What do you think about today’s priorities that I send you in almost every single morning?”, I asked my colleague during the meeting.
“I really understand 99,9% of all the directives on that list, Mas. By the end of the day, I’ve felt fulfillment after I cross that priorities list”, she replied
The response of my colleague during the meeting got me thinking about how much time I save when it comes to managing my day-to-day job simply by making today’s priorities.
Today’s priorities is not really such a special document. It is only one page long, and I spent about 30–45 minutes making it.
While making this document, I don’t need an AI-based app. Nor a platform where I have to pay a subscription monthly.
I just need a pen and paper. Microsoft Word. The willingness to embrace stillness in the very first of my morning workday. And not responding to phone notifications for a while.
There are about 3–4 priorities (that I select) and steps that we (my colleague and I) need to do besides our routine tasks of that day. For each priority, there’s a clear output that needs to be achieved, a little background on why the output is important, and a how-to. To let my colleague express her ideas, I give some notes that she can adjust the how-to — as long as the output is quite the same.
I make two separate documents. One is my colleague’s today’s priorities. The other is mine. Though what we do are different, the documents are actually in line with the organization’s bigger goals.
I started making Today’s priorities after reading an excellent book by Greg McKeown titled Essentialism: The Discipline Pursuit of Less.
This book inspired me to ask a question that I translate into Today’s Priorities:
‘What are the essential things I should be doing today?’
By having today’s priorities, I know what my work boundaries are.
I become clear on what to Postpone. Eliminate. Delegate. And select the main essential work that I should focus my energy on during my working hours.
When things unexpected come up massively, right after I finish that sudden task, today’s priorities help me to reclaim my agenda of the day that I set initially.
Why Today’s Priorities Makes Your Work More Effective
I believe every worker wants to do their job effectively. So, they’re fulfilled about their work and have more time outside of working hours.
What I mean by effective is when the workers successfully do the work and are making progress on achieving the organization’s desired result.
In order to be effective, we need to let our minds think. Reviewing. Brainstorming. On the very first morning before we start our day job.
In order to be effective, we need a guide that can help us navigate our day job so that by the end of the day, we feel there’s some progress that we’ve made.
This is the reason why today’s priorities important to us.
It helps us to do the essential things that really matter to us
It forces us to eliminate the work that not in line with our organization’s mission.
It helps us postpone some work until the next day.
It helps us not to work reactively
Having today’s priorities doesn’t guarantee that your workday will be free from uncertain and sudden tasks.
It’s not a magic document, for sure.
But this document is really helpful in guiding you to do the essential things that matter to you and your organization.
And whenever you get distracted, you can quickly get back on track with what you promised at the beginning of your workday.
I remember, a few days ago, I sent my colleague today’s priorities via email as usual.
Around two hours after my colleague replied to that email, I sent her a text message:
‘There’s an urgent thing I need you to do. Please prioritize this thing before proceeding to the priorities that I sent you this morning.’
Then, we focused on that urgent thing for some time.
Once we finished with that task, we returned to the priorities that we agreed on that morning.
We did not lack clarity right after we finished the urgent thing that came up.
And we could make a little bit of progress on that day in the job, which was essential to us.
Even though we could not accomplish all those things on the priorities list that day, the satisfaction of succeeding in making 1 percent progress was better than accomplishing many things — but without the sense of satisfaction.
Derian Antonio Daniswara is an Indonesian junior diplomat currently posted in Zagreb, Croatia. He loves sports, especially football, and playing them is his second nature.
Every view and opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s views and do not reflect the positions of any entities he represents.
